NRI: India insurance cover for 62 fils a day!

An insurance scheme exclusively designed for UAE-based NRIs will allow expats to provide protection to their families living in their country of origin, with premiums starting at Dh1.87 per day for a family of 4 or 62 fils for self-coverage.

Aster DM Healthcare’s new Arise insurance scheme, which includes the protection plan mentioned above, was launched in Dubai, in conjunction with RAK Insurance.

6,000 hospitals in India are benefited through this insurance scheme, that provides life, accident and hospitalization coverage, which will be “beneficial to expats based in the UAE with family members residing in their home countries”.In addition to the National Pension Scheme launched last year for NRIs, even a special NRI insurance scheme for Indian blue-collar workers based in the UAE, is underway.

Aster DM Healthcare’s Chairman and Managing Director, Dr Azad Moopen said, “Arise fulfilled a market gap that has been growing with the large influx Indians, now based in the UAE”.

“We often hear from our patients about their inability to meet the financial burden placed upon them when a medical emergency arises in the family. Such constraints prevents them from accessing the best treatments available.

It is keeping this in mind, we launched a simple insurance scheme that would allow NRIs to provide affordable insurance coverage for their family members in India,” he added.

Dr Moopen said an expat could purchase a plan of approximately Dh2, 400 or Dh6.57 per day, through which five people of a family- a wife, one child and two aged parents, can be benefited up to coverage of Rs. 250,000 for each person, under its Bronze scheme.

On the other side, for a self-protection plan, premiums start at 62 fils per day for someone under the age of 25 years, while it averages to Dh1.87 per day for a family of four, which includes a spouse under 25 years, along with two children under 15 years.

“The insurance scheme will additionally provide outpatient benefits that few offer, which can be availed across the Aster network only in India,” he added.

Depending on the age group and the class of coverage that ranges from Bronze to Platinum across four categories, the premium takes variation. The cut-off age for a new policy is 70 years and the renewable age cut-off is 75 years.

However, children with physical disabilities and other special needs are not covered under the scheme.

Targeting 10000 policies by the year end, Moopen said that, they are aiming to expand the plan to Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, in the next year.

“One of the issues many blue-collar workers face is after retirement, if they face a critical illness, how would they be able to afford medical care.

It is something we are looking into, to address, but it will take some time,” Moopen said, speaking about special insurance coverage for blue collar workers.

Shyam Sankar, Head of Bancassurance, RAK Insurance said, “We are planning a feasibility study on achieving such an insurance plan, but it is still in the planning stages. But we hope to introduce something in future.”